Men's Tennis

UCSB Sweeps Big West's Top Honors

May 02, 2006

May 2, 2006

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -
After capturing their first Big West Conference title since 2003, members of the UC Santa Barbara men's tennis team made a clean sweep of the league's top awards, announced on Tuesday.

Senior Nick Brotman earned Big West Player of the Year honors, while Bijan Hejazi was named Freshman of the Year and Marty Davis received Coach of the Year recognition after leading the Gauchos to a 15-10 record entering the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Brotman, a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, posted a 14-8 dual match record at No. 1 singles this spring. He defeated Pacific senior Arnar Sigurdsson - the 2005 conference player of the year - in three sets last Sunday to help Santa Barbara clinch the championship. Brotman garnered three Big West Athlete of the Week awards during the regular season, all coming within the final three weeks of play. A First Team All-Big West singles honoree in 2004, 2005 and 2006, Brotman, was also a First Team All-Big West doubles performer this year while teaming with sophomore Anders Dalskov. He is first Gaucho to earn the league's top honor since Carlos Palencia did so in 2002 and 2003.

Joining Brotman on the all-conference first team in singles was Hejazi, who recorded a 20-6 record while seeing time at No. 2, 3 and 4 singles. The Santa Clara, Calif., native went a solid 13-3 playing in the second spot, where he won both of his matches at last weekend's Big West Championship. Hejazi was named Big West Athlete of the Week on April 26.

The aforementioned Dalskov garnered a spot on the All-Big West Second Team after going 15-9 in regular season dual match play, primarily at No. 3 singles. Finally, the UCSB tandem of freshmen Scott Hohenstein and Carsten Thorstensen received second team acclaim in doubles, posting a 9-13 mark.

Davis received Coach of the Year accolades for the third time in his career, also earning that distinction in 2002 and 2003. He guided the Gauchos to their third league title in his seven-year tenure, defeating Cal Poly and Pacific at the recent Big West Championships in Indian Wells, Calif., to earn the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Davis led Santa Barbara to a 3-0 regular season record against league opponents.

UCSB will learn on Wednesday who and where it will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.